nd guilt. Within only a day, their eyes were swollen completely shut, infected” (82). She begins to understand the natural progression of maturity, and that it cannot be forced like it has so many times been forced upon her. Like the kittens, her mother wanted her to become a self-sufficient animal that she no longer had to care for, but, at the same time, something she could play with. It seems the only time her mother took interest in Isabel is when she was instructing her about clothes, make-up, diaphragms, menstruation, her physique, et cetera. Her mother had a playmate, only tolerable when she could manipulate Isabel into submission. Yet, Isabel’ response to her own foolishness is quite different from that of her mother. She inflicts self-deprivation and punishment through starvation, unable to confess her sins publicly. She never neglects the kittens, but tries to heal their infection with cleaning. She sees “five valuable cats, ruined,” physically scarred by her violation against nature and a constant “reminder of what [she] had done, and the price of confession withheld” (83, 84). The similarity lies in Isabel, as her nature, also, has been violated. She learns to wear her own scars of neglect (fingernail scratches on her legs from her mother, self-inflicted wounds, her infertility), and soon realizes that she is a constant reminder of what her mother has “done, and the price of confession withheld” (84). But, is she a ruined valuable? Isabel must evaluate herself and does so by looking at photographs. Here, she is able to evaluate the profanity of forced and unnatural growth juxtaposed against emotional growth, which she can equate to as Truth. Photographs became an unwanted tool that aided in the conjecture of memories in Isabel’s family. The subject matter could be forced, or manipulated, to manufacture a particular projected emotion—such as happiness...
